Reggie Jackson on Willie Mays’s Legacy, and Being a Black Baseball Player in the 1960s
The whole 8-minute clip is excellent and worth your time, but do not miss the second half, starting with a sharp question from Alex Rodriguez at the 4:30 mark. Reggie describes, in heartfelt detail, the abject racism he faced as a minor league player as recently as the 1960s. Restaurants he couldn’t eat at. Hotels he couldn’t stay at. Threats to burn to the ground the apartment building where he was sleeping. The pain, over five decades later, remains searing.
Kudos to Fox Sports for airing this. We can’t celebrate progress without honestly facing the dark past. (Kudos too, for putting a box of Reggie Bars at the desk. Respect.)
★
The whole 8-minute clip is excellent and worth your time, but do not miss the second half, starting with a sharp question from Alex Rodriguez at the 4:30 mark. Reggie describes, in heartfelt detail, the abject racism he faced as a minor league player as recently as the 1960s. Restaurants he couldn’t eat at. Hotels he couldn’t stay at. Threats to burn to the ground the apartment building where he was sleeping. The pain, over five decades later, remains searing.
Kudos to Fox Sports for airing this. We can’t celebrate progress without honestly facing the dark past. (Kudos too, for putting a box of Reggie Bars at the desk. Respect.)